Holiday Doin’s

The last few days have been pretty busy, season-wise. Last Friday (Dec 16th) we went to a Christmas party at Pfrimmer’s Chapel for some kids in the Project Head Start program, and we got to visit and hand out donated gifts to the children. BIG fun!

Saturday was really full. It was my last session as Corydon’s Santa, so I was in the Old Capitol building from 1 – 5 PM welcoming all the kids who wanted to come whisper their Christmas wishes. Lotsa fun, very rewarding! I ‘punched out’ at 5PM, headed straight home because we (me and Mrs Claus) had to be at the next-door-neighbors for a Christmas party with LOTSA kids! So, we went over to see Matt and Anna, their two kiddos, and a BUNCH of visiting tykes! We were a BIG hit, I can tell ya! I went in wavin’, and the kids almost swooned with ecstacy! They were hopping around, screaming, we loved it! We couldn’t stay for a very long time because we had one more place to be that day.

We said goodbye to the kids at the party, then rushed home to change into our ‘rustic costumes’ for Corydon’s Old-Time Christmas celebration. We were volunteers and were scheduled to appear at the old cabin out at the Civil War battleground site just at the south end of town (for those who don’t remember, the site commemorates the raid by the Confederate troops under General John Hunt Morgan – their incursion into Indiana was one of only two invasions by Confederate troops onto Northern soil – the other was at Gettysburg). Anyway, my assignment was to sit in a rocker in the cabin and read the newspaper, Kate was to pretend to be baking cookies in the kitchen end of the cabin, and to pass out ‘actual cookies’ to the visitors. Kate had made me a very nice vest for the occasion – I’m constantly amazed at her skills with needle and thread! You can see me sitting there (sans newspaper), appearing as ‘local flavor’, I guess 🙂 Check out Kate’s outfit (which she made, of course) – very nice dress and apron, and I LOVE that little hat!

Well, when we first entered the cabin we were VERY pleased to discover that the Corydon Dulcimer Society had 5 of their folks inside the cabin performing. It was wonderful! They had 4 folks on dulcimer and one fellow on guitar – later, they had a lady show up wtih her antique harp and she joined in. Quite the musicfest! I also got to help feed the fire, since I couldn’t play the dulcimer 🙂

I’ve included a few photos of the musicians and a few miscellaneous shots (including a photo of me with Jamie Eiler, a fine fellow from New Albany who’s a regular at these re-enactment things – the lady with the tray of cookies is Nancy Snyder, the usual ‘straw boss’ for these events. That gal is an ORGANIZER!)

So, if any of this ‘old-timey’ stuff seems NEAT, be sure to attend next year, OK?

2 responses to “Holiday Doin’s”

Thank you so much for coming to our Battlepark and volunteering. I’m a member of the Battle of Corydon park board and we really appreciate your involvement. Also, welcome to the area! Your farm looks very nice, though I bet Colorado was an incredible place to live too. We have some high hills in the county, but nothing compared to the Rockies!

It is wonderful to see the old cabin filled with music and folk once again. It would make Amos and Medora Lemmon very proud and happy. All of the many relatives of theirs who lived and visited there would be thrilled, too.